Thursday, June 28, 2012

welp, we are officially a family of four. i can't believe it's been almost two full months since graham joined our party!

this go around was definitely different than with brice. the entire pregnancy was much easier, which may be contributed to the fact that it wasn't 1000 degrees out...or that "supposedly" boy pregnancies are easier. once again, i hold true to the fact that i DO NOT enjoy being pregnant, and i am not ashamed. i love my babies, but being uncomfortable and waddling around while fighting down the fire-breathing-dragon that has manifested itself in my chest is no bueno.

any hoo...

graham's actual due date was may 13th, but i was hoping - and praying - we wouldn't make it out of april. april came and went. awesome. at my 37 week appointment, i was dilated to 2 cm, and effaced about 50%. this TOTALLY freaked me out because with brice, i basically went from zero to sixty, so the thought of walking around with the trap door open sent me into a tizzy. the following thursday, we were a 3...and the week after that we were a five. A FIVE! i have never even heard of anyone walking around dilated to 5 cm. i knew he was going to fall out, and it would probably happen at target.

friday night, may 4th, i started feeling different. the baby was definitely having a dance party, moving much more than normal, and all of the sudden, he calmed down. i felt the need to go pee (which is the norm at almost 39 weeks) and i thought my water broke. of course, just like with brice, daddy had gone out and had kind of his last hoo-rah, so i got the joy of waking him up and telling him i thought maybe we should go. my greatest fear at this point was that we wouldn't make it to the hospital in time to get an epidural and i didn't even want to take the chance of that happening. seeing as how i had been a five for at least two days, that was a very reasonable fear!

after about 15 minutes of discussing if we should go and a hot shower for daddy, we called our sweet friend marci who lives around the corner to come stay with the soon-to-be-big-sister.

when we got to the hospital, i was dilated to 6 cm and my water had not broken. apparently i had a false alarm at the house...anyway, i was admitted under "observation" and was indeed having regular contractions. HALLELUJAH. we were finally getting this kid out!

about 4:30 a.m., i got my epidural and they started a bit of pitocin. about 7 or so, my doctor came in to check. i was dilated to an 8 and my water still hadn't broken, which is when i truly realized every pregnancy and delivery is so different! she broke my water and we were off to the races. well, not really. our babies have large heads, so we had to do a bit of maneuvering to get him to drop on down, and once i rolled over on my belly, then we were moving...i started pushing about 8:50 or so and at 9:05, he was out! woo!

now, we knew this kid was going to be big, but when they weighed him and told us 9lbs, 11oz, everyone, including our doctor, was shocked! PRAISE THE LORD this kid was a week early. that could've been bad news bears.

so, there you have it. not nearly as entertaining as the first go around, but he's here and he's awesome. and he's huge. :)